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Saturday, May 21, 2011

This week a Ball arrived that I have been after a decent copy of for several years:

Thomas Watson Ball

A Romance of Summer Seas

by Varina Anne Jefferson-Davis

Harper & Brothers, New York, 1898

The book is scarce for several reasons. Besides the beautiful cover and any literary merit, the author was the daughter of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and lived a short and tumultuous life.

The spine is simply stamped in gold lettering. The nautical art on the cover is in light blue, off-white, and creamy light yellow, with lettering, shell motif, and border in the creamy color.

How do we know that this unsigned design is a Ball, besides that it looks like his work? The cover panel is in Ball's portfolio, which is in the rare book collection of the University of Rochester. While in Rochester for The Future of Reading Symposium at RIT last year I went to the UR Special Collections, which has a strong interest in American book covers and a nice website on the subject, and went through the actual Ball portfolio. One revelation was the discovery of a Ball monnogram I had never seen. He rarely signed his covers, and the only two monograms I have had were T.W.B. in simple lettering. Fortunately I was able to find a decent copy of this book

Thomas Watson Ball

Robin Brilliant

by Mrs. Henry Dudeny

Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1903

Detail: Monogram of T. W. Ball

If it were not in the portfolio, this device, or logo, would not likely be interpreted as TB or TWB--it looks like AB. Perhaps he was trying to blend it into the Art Nouveau styling of the design and lettering.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Very pleased to let you know that the 2011 Worldwide Books Award for Publications was awarded for The Art of American Book Covers 1875-1930 by The Art Libraries Society of North America. Here's a webcam snapshot:

If you are in Holland, you might enjoy the review of The Art of American Book Covers 1875-1930 in Boeken over Boeken (Books about Books).
If you are near Den Haag, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek has the three Limited Edition volumes the reviewer describes as "Van de boeken die hij daarvoor heeft verzameld heeft hij drie catalogi gemaakt in gelimiteerde edities, die nogal kostbaar zijn."
If you are elsewhere and your local bookstore does not have a copy of The Art of American Book Covers, amazon.com offers a substantial discount.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed that I have not been updating this blog recently. Don't worry, in the future it will become much more active. I have been busy getting out Volume 3 of American Decorated Publishers' Bindings 1872-1929. It has 300 designs that were not in the first two volumes, bringing the total to 1,100 cataloged designs + variants. The cover features an adaptation of a Thomas Watson Ball design from 1899: